I
saw the Mad in America article about my post on
I feel like it was misrepresentative to
say that I wanted to give people cake and ice cream, as if that would
undo the violation people might feel, especially after involuntary hospitalizations. I was drawing on the example of what I
saw in mental health court, that people who were incarcerated as
criminals, then chose to participate in the MHC with all it's
requirements (generally many: treatment, medications, often substance
abuse treatment, requirements for day and residential programs) yet end
with a sense of being proud. There is a graduation ceremony and they
come if they want, invite their families, get certificates, take photos
with the judges. No one is forced to come, and the have fried chicken
--which I somehow found humorous, but at the moment it's looking a lot
better than the cake and pizza which are my favorite cheap foods. Readers felt was demeaning and comparable to birthday party food for small children, and if I ever suggest food again for any event, it may be lobster. I was
trying to say that if something presumably traumatizing -- like getting
arrested and labeled a criminal -- could later be turned to something that
wasn't so shameful, maybe we should consider that sort of thing to help
people feel less traumatized and shamed with hospitalization. Without the mention of Mental
Health Court's approach, it comes off as sounding like I want to feed
people cake to make their pain go away and undo the
violations they were subjected to, which I never meant. I wanted just
to ask if people felt that some validation of their distress would be
helpful, and I think people like food with events. Or at least I like food with events.
I
realize that some people who are involuntarily hospitalized are
terribly traumatized, which is why I'm writing the book. I don't think
psychiatrists see that and I think if it were figured it into the
equation, maybe less people would be involuntarily hospitalized
(certainly, no one should be forcibly hospitalized for 'sadness' as one
of the MIA commenters put it), other alternatives could be found, and more
of an effort would be made to treat those where there are no options but involuntarily
hospitalized with respect and kindness. I thought the responses were polarizing, while commenters here and at Mad in America complained that I was lacking empathy, defensive, and just plain evil, Psychiatric Times deemed it one of the top 6 articles on psychiatry for the month!
Monthly Roundup: Top 6 Psychiatry Articles in February
Monthly Roundup: Top 6 Psychiatry Articles in February
- See more at:
http://www.psychiatrictimes.com/cultural-psychiatry/monthly-roundup-top-6-psychiatry-articles-february?cid=tw#sthash.VQvM5YjA.dpuf
Monthly Roundup: Top 6 Psychiatry Articles in February
Monthly Roundup: Top 6 Psychiatry Articles in February
- See more at:
http://www.psychiatrictimes.com/cultural-psychiatry/monthly-roundup-top-6-psychiatry-articles-february?cid=tw#sthash.8fBy2dv3.dpuf
Monthly Roundup: Top 6 Psychiatry Articles in February
Monthly Roundup: Top 6 Psychiatry Articles in February
- See more at:
http://www.psychiatrictimes.com/cultural-psychiatry/monthly-roundup-top-6-psychiatry-articles-february?cid=tw#sthash.VQvM5YjA.dpuf
I
stopped publishing the comments on my own blog, because as horrible as I
hear people can be treated during involuntary stays, these feelings are
not the same for everyone, and the comments because insistent,
repetitive, and I don't think they left room for anyone to voice another
opinion . Some people get better and appreciate being
in the hospital, some get better and still understandably resent it, and
some are just terribly distressed for years. When they get too
extreme, I worry that people stop listening -- so while I know people
feel terribly violated, I wonder if it wouldn't upset the victims of war
torture, rape, and kidnapping, to have their experience compared to
being in the hospital where people presumably are at least trying to
help them? And I think some people shut down when they hear someone
compare treatment to torture -- there are those who will stop listening
and discount their opinions. We live in a democracy, and I think folks
might get more traction by talking with their legislators and proposing
new laws; it's more powerful then blog comments. And most psych hospitalizations are voluntary -- some coerced, but many people ask to be in the hospital, repeatedly, and find it helpful.
I'm sorry this blog post turned out to be so polarizing. No one has
ever called me "evil" before. And one commenter on my blog
(unpublished) insisted psychiatrists just need to admit that their work
is useless and never helps anyone and that I should become a gardener.
If it doesn't help you (and I mean the metaphorical 'you', not you
personally!) then I can see why you might think that, but it seems
unfair to insist that everyone has the exact same reaction to being
hospitalized, or even being offered outpatient psychotherapy on a
voluntary basis. I'm also sorry that some of my comments came off as
being defensive. Often I'm responding to blog comments quickly, between
activities, and I often don't measure every word or consider how they
might be construed from a variety of different perspectives. Anyone who
regularly reads my blog knows that my posts are done quickly and often
with typos, I'm just stretched a bit too thin to do the proof-reading to
catch them, and in a similar way, I sometimes reply to comments without
thinking through every angle. I also often have completely different
views than the commenters. And I admit that I do close up a bit when
people insist that everyone experiences things the same exact same way
that they do. It leaves no room for people to be human.
Hundreds
of thousands of people are involuntarily hospitalized each year. While
I won't be suggesting acknowledgment events in the book after the
feedback I've gotten, I do wonder if just one of those hundreds
of thousands of people might like someone to notice how painful their
experience was and how hard they worked to get better, and perhaps be
offered the chance to have their kids come have a piece of pizza with
them when they were ready to go home.
I am well aware that offering someone a "party" or a piece of
cake doesn't make the bad of it go away and I never intended that.
There are some people who come in very sick and very psychotic, and who
feel a lot better. And by the 'exit interview' I was thinking some
about the comparison to being raped -- -what could be worse than being
raped and having someone tell you it didn't happen or wasn't that bad?
Might it help to be heard and have your violation acknowledged? I hear
that some people feel that wouldn't be safe and that if they were ever
admitted again, they could be the subject of retribution. I never meant
for either an exit interview or a the offer of an acknowledgement
meeting to be something that is forced, simply offered. Sometimes it seems our commenters pit the patient as always the sane one -- as though people can never be sick or psychotic, or dangerous, or violent-- and the staff as purposely sadistic. Patients can be sick, and there are bad people in all fields And believe me,
I feel anyone who is intentionally cruel should be fired.
Please
feel free to post this in the comment for me on Mad In America. Commenting here will be closed for a bit.